As his administration responds to widespread destruction in Florida’s Gulf coast and Big Bend regions, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Saturday that at least 11 deaths in the state were related to Hurricane Helene.

Less than 12 hours after Helene made landfall in Florida's Big Bend as a devastating Category 4 storm, Ron DeSantis addressed the state from the Emergency Operations Center.Speaking at 9 a.m. from Tallahassee,

State Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie implored people not involved in recovery efforts to stay off the roads as authorities conducted search-and-rescue efforts amid debris and dissipating storm surge.

And for a long time, hurricanes have been a fact of life ‒ and usually mild enough to ride out in town. Locals threw hurricane parties, cracking open beers and howling defiance at the wind.

Officials feared more fatalities would be discovered on Friday. The storm, which now marks the first known Category 4 storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region since records began in 1851, weakened to a tropical storm Friday morning as it barreled through Georgia,

Helene was one of the most powerful storms to hit Florida’s Big Bend in a lifetime, and damages across the region are mounting from the water and wind.